Tsk, this is a problem.
Looking at Arno's receding figure, Leo felt a mix of relief and concern.
The relief came from the fact that his last drop of mana had been wrung dry. If Arno had truly charged at him with no regard for his life, Leo would have had no way to fight back except with his teeth.
The concern was that letting a tiger return to the mountains only invited future disaster.
Once a sneaky bastard like that escaped, Leo would likely have to sleep with one eye open for the rest of the journey.
Right at that moment—!
"Whoosh—!!!"
A scorching sound of breaking air, carrying a violent scent of sulfur, suddenly exploded from the direction of the tent behind Leo!
The temperature in the air soared instantly. Leo subconsciously tucked his neck, feeling the hair on the back of his head singe.
A thick, incredibly unstable pillar of crimson fire, like the breath of an out-of-control dragon, blasted precisely toward Arno’s escape route!
"Boom—!"
The fire pillar tore through a tent in its path without resistance, its momentum undiminished as it instantly swallowed the sprinting figure!
"Aaaaaagh—!!!"
A shrill, inhuman scream erupted from the flames, lasting only half a second before it was cut short.
That tent, along with Arno behind it, was instantly reduced to ashes under the violent dragon flame. Not even a speck of dust remained.
Only a scorched trench remained on the ground, emitting acrid green smoke—a testament to the terrifying power of that strike.
"Whoa..."
Leo whistled and turned back in surprise.
The silver-haired, twin-tailed girl was kneeling at the entrance of the tattered tent, her hands still pushed forward in a casting pose.
Her hair was a mess, and her slightly chubby face was flushed with the heat of mana exhaustion. Her chest heaved violently.
Her eyes were glazed over, staring fixedly at the pile of burning ashes. Her pupils held remnants of terror, panic, and the hollow confusion that comes after killing for the first time.
Sensing Leo's playful gaze, she trembled. Her unfocused rose-red eyes snapped back into clarity, and as if trying to hide something, she glared back at him.
"What... what are you looking at!"
Like a kitten that had its tail stepped on, she suddenly raised her voice, trying to use bravado to dispel the fear in her heart.
"Don't... don't get the wrong idea! I didn't do it to save you! That... that is the price for his disrespect toward me!"
"If you’re going to beat a dog, you have to look at the owner! Your life belongs to me! Only I can bully you! Hmph!"
Lucrezia forced herself to try and stand up, but her legs were as soft as noodles. With a "thud," she sat right back down.
That attack just now had been the result of her squeezing the very last drop of mana from her body to release 【Living Flame】. Now, even moving a finger was a struggle.
She looked at the bloodied, swaying Leo. Though she still acted tough, her eyes turned red in spite of herself.
Muttering curses under her breath, she hurriedly fumbled through her small, tattered backpack, pulling out a roll of cloth strips from who-knows-where and a small bottle of pungent, low-grade medicine.
"You cold-blooded jerk! Even though... even though I really shouldn't have affected you at a time like that..."
As she spoke, she stumbled and crawled over to Leo, crudely splashing the medicine onto his deep, bone-exposing wound, tears pattering down.
"But—but is there even a shred of humanity in you?! That was a living person... Demon! Bastard! Scumbag..."
"Hiss—! Easy there!"
The sharp pain of the medicine hitting the wound made Leo suck in a breath. He grimaced and teased, "Humanity? You're just a kid, you don't know a damn thing about humanity."
"In that situation, if I didn't kill them, we would be two corpses right now—maybe even worse than corpses."
Watching her clumsily wrap the cloth strips like he was a mummy, he could tell that despite the terrible technique, her care was genuine.
Though Leo was sweating from the pain, his gaze softened slightly.
"Alright, alright, stop crying, that's enough... Hiss—!"
Leo used his good hand to steady her trembling ones, then tilted his chin toward a dark corner at the edge of the camp.
"You want to talk to me about humanity? There's still one survivor over there."
The smile at the corner of Leo's mouth took on a cold edge, his eyes deepening.
"Go on. Go ask her the questions you didn't finish earlier. See if your 'dear sister' was truly forced into this, or if she was—relishing it."
"Eek—!"
Lily, who was dragging her broken body and gritting her teeth as she crawled toward the darkness, stiffened violently upon hearing those words.
Then, she burst into terrified whimpering again. Mucus and tears mixed with the blood on her face as she desperately tried to speed up her crawl.
"Speaking of which," Leo ignored the stabbing pain in his shoulder and walked toward Lily, casually changing the subject, "that move just now was pretty fierce. Why haven't I seen you use it before?"
"Hmph!"
At the mention of this, Lucrezia paused. Her face flushed slightly as she stammered, "That's because... because I haven't fully awakened yet... sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't..."
Seeing her embarrassed look, and recalling the class traits of a dragon-blooded sorcerer—where they relied on bloodline, didn't need to study, and everything depended on their mood.
Leo instantly understood. He put on a punchable look of realization.
"Oh—I get it. It's a random proc, right? I guess I'll have to use you as a d20 from now on."
"Shut up!!"
Lucrezia was mortified. She suddenly yanked the unknotted cloth strip tight!
"Ow! Pain! Stop, let go!"
The two bickered all the way as they followed the intermittent trail of blood to the female archer.
Lily could no longer crawl.
With a broken arm and a broken leg, reaching this far was already the limit of her survival instinct.
At this moment, seeing the mud-stained boots stop in front of her, she turned around with great difficulty.
On her blood-smeared face, the features that had been twisted in agony miraculously squeezed out a heart-wrenching expression of misery and pleading the moment she saw Lucrezia approach.
"Lu... Lucie, sister... help... save your sister..."
Lily reached out with her one intact hand, death-gripping the hem of Lucrezia's muddy skirt as if it were her last lifeline.
"I... I didn't want to! Really! It was Arno! That damn Arno forced me!"
She sobbed hysterically, her voice trembling and filled with remorse.
"He was the captain... he's a madman! If I didn't listen to him, he would have killed me! I'm just a weak woman... I had no choice!"
"I... I actually wanted to let you two go secretly! Truly! When I brought the fruit earlier, I wanted to drop a hint... I beg you... for the sake of how I looked after you all day... let me go..."
Lucrezia's original fury and questions were momentarily halted by this sudden self-injury ruse.
She looked at the incredibly pathetic woman crying her heart out, looked at her severed arm and leg, and the bit of softness in the girl's heart that hadn't quite died yet wavered involuntarily.
Killing an enemy who was actively fighting back was one thing.
Executing an "acquaintance" who had lost all ability to resist and was crying for mercy was another.
"You... you were forced?"
Lucrezia's voice was a bit dry, and her clenched fist loosened slightly.
She subconsciously looked at Leo, a glimmer of hope in her eyes—maybe it really was a misunderstanding?
"Heh."
A sharp, ear-piercing sneer, filled with equal parts mockery and coldness, came from the side.
It shattered Lucrezia's naive fantasy.
Leo crossed his arms and leaned against a tree trunk, his black eyes shimmering with a clarity that saw through everything.
"Forced?"
He tilted his head, as if watching a clumsy farce.
"Were you forced to proactively monitor us? Or were you forced to harbor those ill intentions just now?"
Lily's crying hitched. A flash of panic crossed her eyes.
Leo didn't give her a chance to breathe. His tone was light, but every word was like a nail driven into her vitals.
"If I remember correctly, you were only blasted because you pulled back the flap of Lucrezia's tent, right? Why were you trying to sneak in the middle of the night without knocking? Hmm?"
"Forget it. We're all adults here. Stop acting."
Leo's gaze turned ice-cold, his voice like a demon's whisper.
"The moment you stayed awake past midnight and raised your blade against us in full gear, there was no longer any room for turning back."
"If you tell the truth now, I might give you a quick end. Otherwise..."
Leo pulled out the still-wet dagger from his waist and toyed with it in his hand.
"I'll show you what it truly means to have 'no humanity.'"
Boom!
These words were like a bolt of lightning, ruthlessly tearing away Lily's final disguise.
Her miserable, pitiful face froze instantly.
She looked up at Leo.
In those seemingly smiling eyes, there was no warmth—only the indifference of one looking at a corpse.
She knew that this guy in front of her knew everything... and he was absolutely capable of doing it.
Acting? Begging? Moral kidnapping?
In front of this cold-blooded demon with plenty of experience in seeing through scams, it was all a joke.
Hope was extinguished.
Rate on N.U.
